Getting the hang of it.

             Pip, the dobermann puppy’s story as told to Alexandra Bastedo.

                   www.abcanimalsanctuary.co.uk

 

             You know when you go to a new home the whole layout – the geography – is totally different so it has meant a whole new learning curve for me. However, finally at the age of four months I think I am really getting the hang of it.

              Yesterday I managed to get hold of the spare loo roll from the cloakroom downstairs and it made a wonderful plaything. I took it into the garden and managed to unroll it over a wide area, but the most fun I had was tearing the paper into tiny bits and sprinkling it all round the garden like confetti. My owner was really rather a bad sport though. When she came back from cleaning out the Shetland ponies’ stable in the top field she shouted at me and then proceeded to pick it all up muttering to herself as she did so which meant there was nothing left for me to tear up and I had to go back to my boring toys which are now fairly shredded themselves.

                                  However apart from knowing where all the cat bowls are in the top cattery, I also know where the pony and donkey carrots are kept as sometimes when they are filling up the feed bowls for the other animals they give me one. So today while all the helpers were having a coffee break I shot off down to the barn and came back with a lovely juicy carrot which I proceeded to chomp on. Nellie, the adult dobermann looked rather amazed I think she must have wondered where I had found it and was rather cross that I refused to give her any.

                         My main motive in life it has to be said remains food. I can swing on door handles and open the doors if there is food the other side, I can pull tablecloths off tables in order to send the porridge bowl crashing to the floor so I can scoff it before anyone sees me  and on my back legs anything left on the sideboard is now a fair target – I found I particularly like bananas in their skins but they are now living in the fridge and I haven’t  worked out how to open it yet. 

                                 The only other thing I was told off for was a game I had devised called “swinging on the curtains” – unfortunately the curtain rail came crashing down on me and I was caught red- handed – or rather red-pawed-  in the midst of it. The humans didn’t seem very pleased at all. Every time they struggled to put it back the nails came out of the wall and they had to do it all over again. I mustn’t do that again!

                                  However they were pleased with me on our first walk in the country as I trotted along very nicely in my new Roger Mugford training harness. It doesn’t hurt at all and instills a feeling of security when other big dogs bark at you and cows loom out of the mist. In fact the weather has been absolutely dreadful with 80 mile an hour winds so our activity has been rather curtailed . Hopefully as it gets better there will be many new experiences and lots more adventures.

                                     by Alexandra Bastedo

Alexandra is the author of “Beware Dobermanns, Donkeys and Ducks”, “The Healthy Dog” and “The Healthy Cat” books. Alexandra is the founder of the ABC Animal Sanctuary which is staffed by 4 or 5 volunteers a day and depends upon donations – however small- to finance all the animals. Meet the animals on www.abcanimalsanctuary.co.uk

copyright Alexandra Bastedo

SISTERLY LOVE.

                  www.abcanimalsanctuary.co.uk

          Pip, the dobermann puppy’s story as told to Alexandra Bastedo.

                                            I have had the most exciting week as my sister Boogie came to visit me with her adopted family, Mr. and Mrs. Turner from Southsea and their other dog- a nine month old dobermann bitch called Jazz.

                                           Unfortunately Nellie was kept in another room during the visit as she is not partial to other large black dobermann bitches, which was a shame from my point of view as I felt outnumbered and by now I am used to having Nellie as my protector. In fact to tell you the truth when the two dogs arrived I was absolutely terrified and peed on the spot. So much time had elapsed that at first I didn’t recognise my sister Boogie, but there was something familiar about her and after a few sniffs we relaxed and started playing like we used to do.

                                          I still have the egg-shaped bump on the top of my head from the injury I sustained when the two of us played too roughly back in Wales but I had forgotten how tough she was. I think maybe she had been having a lot of wrestling practice with her larger dobermann friend, Jazz, because I found her, if possible, even worse than before. As we raced around she kept on sending me flying and sometimes she would jump on me and knock me over and I would end up on my back underneath. It was so humiliating, but I may be a little out of practice - Nellie at the age of six is much more sedate and won’t let me maul or tackle her. However I do have quite a large assortment of stuffed toys that I throw from side to side and pretend to kill and several chews I can sink my teeth into so I wasn’t entirely off form.

                                               Still after 2 hours of my sister’s company it all got too much. We just couldn’t stop beating each other up so I had to be rescued and put in my cage for a bit until we both quietened down. Much as I enjoyed the visit it was something of a relief when they left and life returned to normal. It also made me appreciate Nellie all the more. She  may tell me off occasionally when I annoy her but she never beats me up! 

                            Life at the sanctuary continues to be endlessly fascinating with all kinds of animals and birds that I am not  supposed to chase- though I still manage to when nobody is looking. I have also discovered that horse manure tastes really good – Nellie likes it too – but we tend to get told off if we so much as touch it. Apart from that and stealing food off any surface I can reach I think I have been reasonably good this week - I have learnt how to use the dog flap and how to walk on a harness and lead . Now my vaccinations are over I will soon be going on walks in the great outside world- I can’t wait I wonder what new exciting smells there will be and what new animals and people I will meet.

                                                   by Alexandra Bastedo

Author of the vet recommended “The Healthy Cat” and “The Healthy Dog” books and “Beware Dobermanns, Donkeys and Ducks”. Alexandra is also the founder of the ABC Animal Sanctuary www.abcanimalsanctuary.co.uk which has over 150 animals and is staffed entirely by volunteers. Any donations, adoptions or sponsorships are very much appreciated to enable us to continue with our work of rescuing animals.

Copyright A.L.Bastedo

Getting Older

                                  www.abcanimalsanctuary.co.uk

                 THE STORY OF PIP, THE DOBERMANN PUPPY, AS TOLD TO

                                               ALEXANDRA BASTEDO

                  I am now 13 weeks old and I am noticing some distinct changes in myself. The main one is that I have grown a little and can no longer get through the holes in the  fencing to get at the cat food in the catteries on the other side. However on the plus side I am taller and this means I can get at things on top of tables, sideboards and desks that I couldn’t before. So far I have succeeded in pulling down reading glasses, knives and forks, butter, a jug of cream, newspapers, paper napkins, important letters, bills and books – I had great fun shredding all the paper and loved ripping off the book cover. I did get told off but at the moment life is just so much fun and I have a very short memory so I tend to forget and do it all over again the moment no-one is looking.

                         I have been observing Nellie, the grown-up dobermann, and try to copy her a lot of the time. I have observed her peeing and doing her number twos outside and have been highly praised when I have done the same so a lot of the time we do it in unison. I find it much better than being scolded for doing it all inside the house so I haven’t made a mistake in that department for some time. Actually that is not quite true I was so frightened when I went to the vet I did a number two, stepped in it, got through the dog guard and spread it round the car. I don’t think my owner was very pleased as it took her half an hour to clean it!

                                     I spend quite a lot of time playing with the cats. Alfie the 17 year old is quite the naughtiest. He spends quite a lot of his time trying to ambush me but I have decided to stop pouncing on him as although he doesn’t have any teeth any more his claws can be quite painful. I used to like playing with Caspar the eighteen year old ginger boy but he is rather a spoil sport and spends most of his time on top of the furniture these days and only comes down when he knows I am asleep- even his food is on top of a high table so I can’t get at it.  Ollie , the white Persian who used to live with 30 cats and dogs in a tiny house, is the most friendly and seems to quite enjoy my company. He certainly doesn’t disappear like Fluff and Gustav – two more oldies whose owner died – who  tend to leave the room whenever they spot me. I really get told off if I try to chase them which is a real shame as it is so much fun running after moving things.

                                   However I have to admit to being terrified of some of the other animals at the sanctuary. Paris, the deaf cat, and Tigga, the tabby stalk me sometimes and hiss so I give them a wide berth and the sheep are quite frightening. In fact Nellie told me to be very careful – when Katie and her two lambs, Kylie and Kim, were running loose they actually used to chase Nellie and the other dobermann, Ponto, to the point where they were afraid to go out of the garden. As a result the sheep were banned to the field and now co-habit with Marty and Shabba, the large horses, and the two Wiltshire Longhorn castrated rams. We are kept away from the donkeys and ponies too – and Nellie says it is just as well as they can kick. However the real shame is that all the chickens and ducks are kept behind a very high fence with an elecrified wire round the bottom. When I tried to get at them I got zapped so I won’t be doing that again! 

                                 

                                       

     Alexandra Bastedo is the author of “Beware Dobermanns, Donkeys and Ducks” and “The Healthy Cat” and “The Healthy Dog ” books. She is the founder of the ABC Animal Sanctuary www.abcanimalsanctuary.co.uk which has over 150 animals and birds and is staffed entirely by volunteers. Any money donated on our website is used entirely for the welfare of the animals.

Copyright A.L. Bastedo